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- Professor Zainab has never assaulted anybody anywhere at any time – Afro-European Lawyers League
- Alleged assault barbaric, inhuman – PSC
Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola, a legal practitioner and human rights activist, and her maid, Rebecca Enechido, have been remanded at the Suleja Correctional Facility till October 5, 2022.
The Chief Magistrate Court of FCT Zone 6 ordered the remand
Prof. Abiola was arrested for allegedly causing grievous assault of her Police orderly, Inspector Teju Moses.
The Police accused Abiola, of attempt to commit culpable homicide and intentional insult to cause a breach of trust.
The court ruled that the suspect be remanded in the Suleja Correctional Facility while the case was adjourned to October 5th for the next hearing.
Prof. Abiola, an Mbaise-born activist, was said to have grievously assaulted her orderly in company of some accomplices on Tuesday 20th September, at her residence in Garki, Abuja.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, had earlier directed the express prosecution of the arrested suspects who are currently in Police custody, as the preliminary investigation shows overwhelming evidence of culpability on the part of the Professor and her domestic staff.
The IGP condemned the grievous assault of Inspector Moses and equally tasked the investigative team to ensure that the fleeing suspect is arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.
Meanwhile, the Afro-European Lawyers League, the Professor said the Abuja-based lawyer and human rights activist, Professor Zainab Duke Abiola, arrested alongside her housemaid, Rebecca Enechido, on Thursday, never assaulted her female police orderly, Inspector Teju Moses.
In a statement issued on her behalf the Afro-European Lawyers League regretted that it was strange that the IGP will forcefully violate “the fundamental Rights and liberties of a distinguished law-abiding citizen and proceed to forcefully take her pictures and maliciously publish same in the print and electronic media in this nascent democratic dispensation.”
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a fallacious malicious defamatory publication against our respected Alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Security Studies, NIPPS, Professor Zainab Duke mni, alleging assault on one of her police orderlies.
“We categorically state that this is not true and nothing could be further from the truth. For the records our respected revered Professor Zainab has never assaulted anybody anywhere at any time. It is not in her character.
“That on the 20th of April 2022 the IGP approved the re-validation and deployment of police orderlies to our leader based on the fact that she is the Chief Legal Consultant to the Nigerian Police and has her office at the Force headquarters, Abuja.
“That the police consequently assigned a female police officer who was among the perpetrators of Violence against innocent Nigerian Citizens during the ENDSARS imbroglio.
“That consequent upon discovery of her orderly’s involvement in police brutality against Nigerians that Professor Zainab rejected the posting of a brutal officer and returned the said orderly back to Force Headquarters to her bosses and told her Bye bye on the 19th of September.
“That to our surprise around 10pm the former orderly returned with a vengeance banging on our gates with some dangerous weapons including a gun threatening to kill everybody in the compound and that the police orderly beat up family members of the professor’s household.
“That as can be seen in the video a crowd soon gathered and there was street brawling crowd fighting and loss of properties.
“That it is very strange that the IGP will forcefully, brutally and illegally violate the fundamental Rights and liberties of a distinguished law- abiding citizen and proceed to forcefully take her pictures and maliciously publish same in the print and electronic media in this nascent democratic dispensation.”
In a video clip that went viral on Wednesday, the officer is seen in uniform bleeding, seated on the floor and asking to be taken to the hospital for medical attention.
Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday, said the police were going after a fleeing domestic worker complicit in the assault.
Meanwhile, the Police Service Commission (PSC) has described the attack on Insp. Teju Moses, a female police orderly attached to Prof. Zainab Abiola, as barbaric and inhuman.
In a statement issued on Friday by Mr. Ikechukwu Ani, the Head of Press and Public Relations of PSC, in Abuja, the Commission described the assault on the police officer as a direct threat to national security and a calculated attempt to ridicule the Nigeria Police Force and what it stands for.
Ani called for the immediate investigation and prosecution of all characters involved in the show of shame.
Furthermore, he urged the police authorities to review the operations of the Special Protection Unit (SPU).
The PSC spokesman said the call was to ensure that only a few Nigerians who genuinely deserve such protection are given the service.
“The Commission frowns at the abuse of police orderlies by Nigerians who now use them as status symbols or convert them to house helpers who clean, cook, or do menial jobs.”
“With the security problems ravaging the nation, there is an urgent need to free many police officers loitering in private houses and following big men around,” he said.
Ani called on the police hierarchy to quickly put a stop to the practice and concentrate its efforts on the policing and protection of vulnerable Nigerians.
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